Blending mill liquid feed



Dec. 1, 1959 J. J. FISCHER 2,915,300

BLENDING MIL-L LIQUID FEED Y I Filed March a, 1956 L lQU/D SUPPLY ipz a 'INVENTOR.

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2,915,300 r BLENDING MILL'LIQUII) FEED John .I. Fischer, East Stroudsburg, Pa., assignor to The Patterson-Kelley Co., Inc., Ea'stStroudsburg, Pa.

This invention relates to machines of the type sometimes referred to as blenders for mixing materials in the various industries. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in machines designed toproduce moistor wet mixtures when working with dry powdered materials such as are normally considered to be immiscible because'of their tendencies to lump when coming in contact with moisture. More specifically, the present invention relates to further improvements in devices such as disclosed for example in prior Patents No. 2,514,126, and No. 2,677,534. Whereas, theoretically, 'an intimate mixture of dry powdered material and a liquid may be obtained by spraying the liquid into the powdered dry material while tumbling the latter, it has been determined by practice that in industrial blending operations dry materials are often met with which tend to lump when liquids are sprayed or poured or stirred or otherwise introduced thereinto in accord with conventionalpractices.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for adding liquids to dry materials such as are normally difficult to wet into uniformly moistened and blended form.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved form of blending mill for use in the various industries whereinit is required to uniformly blend relatively small amounts of liquids into dry materials such as-are normally non-receptive to moistening or Wetting treatments. a

Another object of the inventionis to provide animproved blending mill as aforesaid which obtains an improved wet-blending operation without use of complicated or expensive accessory equipment.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the specification hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a wet-blending mill embodying the invention, with portions broken away to show the interior thereof.

- Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section on an enlarged scale, showing in disassembled relation details of the liquid feeding and blending mechanism of the mill of Fig. 1; and I Fig. 3 is a sectional view, on a reduced scale, taken along line III-III of Fig. 2.

The invention is shown in the drawing herewith as being embodied in a tumbling mill of the type illustrated in the patents previously referred to; the mill comprising generally a hollow container comprising opposite side leg portions 12 of frustro-cylindrical form disposed with their cylinder axes intersecting at approximately 90 and welded together as indicated at 14. The outer ends of the cylinder portions 10-12 are closed by end plates 16, 18 which .are detachably mounted thereon as indicated at 19 to facilitate loading the machine with fe'ed materials and/ or cleaning out the machine, or the like. The container is fitted at its opposite sides with axially aligned cylindrical housings 20-20 which mount upon stub shafts 2,915,300 7 :;;Patented Dec 1.,t1 959 .Means for driving the shaft 24 may be supplied in any preferred form, and as illustrated in the drawing,; for

example, a motor 29 and speed reducer 30 are mounted on the pedestal 28 and connected to the'shaft 24 by means of a sprocket and chain system as indicatedat- 32. Thus, operation of the motor 29 will cause the mill-to rotate upon the bearings 25, 26, whereupon the material loaded within the mill will be subjected to a thorough admixing action, as explained in the aforesaid patents. A discharge spout and control valve as indicated at 33 is conveniently provided at the apex of the mill container structure, to facilitate dumping of-the blended batches of material from the mill into a wheelbarrow or the like as indicated at 34. However, it will be understood that in lieu of the cart 34 any other suitable means for carrying theprocessed material away from the mill, such as a conveyor or the like, may be employed as preferred.

In accord with the present invention, it is arranged that the material to be blended within the rotating mill is at the same time subjected to a novel progressive Wetting operation, as will now be described in detail. As shown in Figs. 1, 2, the stub shaft'22 at the right hand side of the machine as viewed in Fig. l is hollowed as indicated at 36 (Fig. 2) and is rotatably mounted within the cylindrieal housing 20 by means of ball bearings 3839. In turn, the housing isrotatably mounted upon the pedestal bearing 25; and thus it will be appreciated that the stub shaft 22 rotates freely within the housing 20 while the latter rotates in the pedestal bearing 25. Interiorly of the container the stub shaft 22 is bolted as indicated at 40 to a hollow agitator shaft 42 which spans the interior of the container and rotatably engages at a reduced end portion 44 (Fig. 1) with an axially bored portion of the stub shaft 24. A motor as indicated at 45 is mounted on the pedestal 27 and is geared to the stub shaft 22 by means of a pulley and belt drive mechanism or the like as indicated at 46. I

Thus, it will be appreciated that operation of the motor 45 will drive the shaft 22 and the agitator shaft 42-to rotate interiorly of themill independently of rotation of the latterupon the trunnion bearings 2526. As explained in Patent 2,677,534, the shaft 42 may be provided with radially extending paddles or arms as indic'ated at 46 at intervals along the agitator shaft, and the latter is preferably driven to rotate at a substantially greater speed than the speed of rotation of the mill casing. Hence, the material load within the mill container, as indicated at 50 (Fig. 1) issubjected to a relatively intense agitation locally in the range of the paddles 46 as the load material flows back and forth through the area of the agitator shaft 42 in response to rotation of the mill casing, asexplained in the patents hereinabove referred to.

To introduce the liquid feed into the dry material of the mill feed, I provide one or more liquid film feed discs as indicated at 52 in the drawing. As shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing a liquid feed disc is illustrated as being employed at the preferred position of mounting thereof in the center of the mill casing, but it is to be understood that any other desired number of liquid feed disks may be employed at variously spaced positions .along the agitator shaft'42, if preferred. In any case, the liquid canted attitude as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 by means of eccentric bushing devices 54, 56. The bushing devices are locked on the shaft 42 by means of set screws or the like as indicated at 57, and at their inner ends relative to the disk 52 the bushing devices are chambered as indicated at 58 to provide liquid supply reservoirs at opposite sides of the disk 52 at its hub portion. The shaft 42 is apertured as indicated at 60-60 to permit flow of liquid from the interior of the shaft 42 into the liquid chamber portions 5858 at opposite sides of the disk 52. A liquid supply tube as indicated at 6-4 is slip-fitted through the hollow interior of the stub shaft 22 and the agitator shaft 42 so as to deliver liquid from a suitable supply reservoir as indicated at 65 to the interior of the shaft '42. It then runs into the chambers 5858 at opposite sides of the disk 52 in response to the action of centrifugal forces thereon.

The objective of the invention is to maintain a constant feed of liquid in surface film form to the opposite sides of the disk 52 externally of the bushings S4, 56, as the disk 52 rotates with the shaft 42 and is thereby carried to wobble about (as indicated by the solid line and broken line showings thereof in Fig. 2) interiorly of the dry feed material of the mill. The liquid films thereon are thereby constantly wiped oil? the disk 52 and the liquid is thereby rubbed into the dry mill feed material in such manner as to provide an intimate admixing thereof without permitting the dry material to lump.

The rate of liquid feed to the disk 52 will of course be regulated so as to best suit various blending conditions, as will be understood by anyone versed in the art. Thus, for example, in event it is determined that when working with a relatively thin liquid and only a low rate of supply thereof is required, the bushing devices 54, 56

may be relatively tightly adjusted against the disk 52,

thereby leaving only minute liquid escape passageways between the edges of the bushings and the surfaces of the disk 52. If necessary the coacting surfaces of the bushings and the disk 52 may be quite precisely machined or ground so as to meet in more accurately fitting relation so as to provide therebetween only microscopically small liquid channels. Or, in event the feed liquid is relatively heavy and/or viscous, the bushings may be appropriately spaced away from the disk 52 by any suitable spacer devices disposed therebetween, and thus relatively large liquid escape passageways will be provided for flow of liquid outwardly along the external surfaces of the disk 52 into the zones of wiping of the disk 52 through the dry mill feed material.

It has been determined that the mounting of the liquid film feed disk upon the shaft in canted attitude thereon provides a preferred liquid feed and dry material rubbing action because the disk 52 is thereby caused to continuously displace the mill feed material laterally first in one direction and then in the other incidental to its rotation with the shaft 42. As a consequence, the liquid feed material is continuously wiped off the disk 52 by the disk rubbing against the mill feed material; thereby precluding the possibility that relatively large quantities of liquid may gain access to any relatively small volume of dry feed material, such as would tend to cause the latter to nlump'n Although only one form of the invention has been shown and described in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention is not so limited but that various changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A mechanism for adding liquids to dry pulverant materials comprising a rotating container for the dry material, a rotating agitator device including a shaft disposed within said container for churning the material therewithin, and a liquid feed device carried by said agitator shaft to rotate therewith, said feed device comprising a disc mounted upon said agitator shaft in canted relation to the axis of rotation thereof, and liquid passageway means for conveying liquid to the interior of said agitator shaft in the region of said disc, said agitator shaft being minutely ported contiguous to said disc, whereby upon rotation of said agitator device the liquid feeding through said shaft exits therefrom onto said disk in fine stream form to spread upon the surface of said disc wherefrom it is wiped by rubbing contact of 'the dry material thereagainst.

2. A mechanism for adding liquids to dry materials comprising a container for the dry material, a rotating agitator device including a shaft disposed within said container for churning the material therewithin, and a liquid feed device carried by said agitator shaft to rotate therewith, said feed device comprising adise mounted upon said agitator shaft in canted relation to the axis of rotation thereof, and liquid passageway means for conveying liquid to the interior of said agitator shaft in the region of said disc, said agitator shaft being minutely ported contiguous to said disc on opposite sides thereof, whereby upon rotation of said agitator device the liquid feeding through said shaft exits therefrom in fine stream form and spreads upon the opposite side surfaces of said disc Wherefrom it is wiped by rubbing contact of the dry material thereagainst.

3. A mechanism for adding liquids to dry materials comprising a container for the dry material, a rotating agitator device including a shaft disposed within said container at a position adapting it for churning the material therewithin, and a liquid feed device carried by said agitator shaft to rotate therewith, said feed device comprising a disc mounted upon said agitator shaft transversely of the axis of rotation thereof, means carried by said shaft and coacting with said disc to provide an ad justable width liquid flow gap therebetween, and liquid passageway means for conveying liquid from externally of the mechanism through the interior of said agitator shaft and onto said feeder disc, whereby upon rotation of said agitator the liquid feeding thereto spreads upon the surface of said feed disc wherefrom it is wiped by rubbing contact of the dry material thereagainst.

4. A mechanism for adding liquids to dry materials comprising a container for the dry material, an agitating device including a rotating shaft disposed within said container, and a liquid feed device carried by said agitator shaft to rotate therewith, said feed device comprising a disc mounted upon said agitator shaft and canted transversely of the axis of rotation thereof, and liquid passageway means for conveying liquid from externally of the mechanism to the interior of said agitator shaft into the region of said feed disc together with outlet ports in communication therewith contiguous to said feed disc on opposite sides thereof, whereby upon rotation of said agitator shaft the liquid feeding therethrough exits through said outlet ports and spreads upon the opposite side surfaces of said feeder disc wherefrom it is wiped by rubbing contact of the dry material thereagainst.

5. The combination of claim 4, together with means carried by said shaft and coacting with said disc to regulate the rate of flow of liquid onto said surfaces, said means being movable along the axis of rotation of said shaft to selectively vary such rate of liquid flow.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 318,191 Leder May 19, 1885 1,506,226 Dick Aug. 26, 1924 2,318,293 Cornell May 4, 1943 

